Kaikoura Zipline Tickets: Where to Meet and What to Bring

Where to meet, and where the day ends

Your day starts at EcoZip Adventures HQ, 75 West End, Kaikoura. This is where you check in, meet your guides and get fitted with a harness before the group sets off together. Arrive with time to spare so the check-in does not eat into the trip itself, and bring the closed-toe shoes you will need for the farm and the course.

The trip finishes back where it began, more or less, once the group has come off the last line and made its way back down from the course. Return transport at the end of the day runs from 11 West End, a short walk from the HQ rather than the exact same door, so keep that in mind if you are timing a connection afterwards. If anything about the finishing point is unclear on the day, your guide is the person to ask, not a website written in advance of your visit.

What the day includes

The booking covers round-trip transport from 11 West End, Kaikoura, plus a guided drive out to the Kaikoura airfield. From there a guided 4x4 takes the group through a working farm, including a series of river crossings, before the ziplines begin. Local guides run the whole sequence, from the drive to the last line.

The course itself is five dual ziplines through native forest, meaning New Zealand's own indigenous bush rather than planted woodland. The operator's own figures put the lines between 250 and 620 metres. Dual means two parallel cables side by side, so two people ride at the same time rather than one after another.

Everything above is run by local guides, who stay with the group for the 4x4 crossing and the lines alike, rather than handing the group off between separate operators. Total booking length is 3 hours 30 minutes, and the trip is guided in English throughout, from the first transport pickup to the last line and the walk back to return transport.

The conservation element, and why it is not guaranteed

The trip includes a conservation element, including tree planting. EcoZip describes this part as seasonal, so treat it as something that may or may not be running on the day you book rather than a fixed feature of every trip. If it matters to you, ask when you book rather than assuming it either way.

The forest the course runs through is native bush, the term used in New Zealand for land that has never been cleared and replanted with introduced species. Whether or not the planting is active on your date, the setting itself is the same forest throughout the year.

The 4x4 crossing a river on the working farm before the ziplines begin.

What is not included

Food and drinks are not included. The booking covers the transport, the drive, the farm crossing, the guiding and the five lines themselves, but nothing to eat or drink along the way, so plan around that before you leave your accommodation in Kaikoura.

Nothing in the fact sheet says whether snacks are sold on site or at the airfield, so the safer plan is to bring your own water and eat before you arrive. If you have specific requirements around food, allergies included, raise them with the operator directly rather than guessing from this page. The same goes for anything the booking does not spell out, such as current hours, the season the trip runs in, or how the operator handles poor weather on the day: none of that is fixed enough to state here, and the operator is the one who can actually answer it.

The phone bungy: can you film the lines?

Filming yourself on a zipline with your phone in your hand is not something a harness and a moving cable make easy, and it is not included as standard. The answer EcoZip offers is the phone bungy, a tether that clips your phone to your harness so it stays with you and free for filming rather than in a pocket. It is not included, but it can be added.

If you would rather not carry a phone bungy, the local guides who run the day are still there through the farm crossing and the lines, so it is worth asking one of them about the best moments to have a camera ready before the group sets off.

What to bring, and what to leave behind

Bring water, comfortable clothes you do not mind getting a little dusty on the farm crossing, any personal medication you need through the day, and closed-toe shoes. Closed-toe shoes are not a suggestion here, they are what the course requires.

High heels, sandals, flip flops, open-toed shoes and bare feet are not allowed on the course, and neither is smoking or arriving intoxicated. Plan your footwear the night before rather than on the morning of the trip.

Kaikoura sits on the east coast of New Zealand's South Island, with the Seaward Kaikoura range rising steeply behind the town, so conditions can shift with the terrain. Pack for a day that moves between a vehicle, open farmland and forest, rather than for one fixed setting. For anything this page does not cover, from current opening times to how the operator handles weather on the day, check directly with EcoZip when you book.

Before you book

Meeting to setting off

1. Arrive at EcoZip Adventures HQ

   Check in at 75 West End, Kaikoura, in good time before the group sets off together.

2. Meet your local guides

   Guides run the whole day, from the drive out to the last line, and fit each rider's harness here.

3. Round-trip transport departs

   The group leaves by transport bound for the Kaikoura airfield, the starting point for the farm run.

4. The guided drive to the airfield

   A short guided drive covers the ground between the HQ area and the airfield where the 4x4 leg begins.

5. The 4x4 run through the farm

   A guided 4x4 crosses a working farm, including river crossings, on the way to the first zipline.

6. Gearing up for the first line

   With the farm crossing done, the group gears up at the course and the five ziplines begin.